T41 hard drive in ultrabay.

[loftus]

Hi,

Excuse the noobie nature of this post.

I have an old T41 which has been fine but I suspect has succumbed to the dreaded GPU issue. I don't feel confident trying to fix it myself and it is probably uneconomic to send it away so what I have done is ordered a refurbised T41 - the previous one was refurbished and until the GPU issue was a great piece of kit - and plan to keep the faulty one to cannabilise for spares etc.
The question I have is if I remove the hard drive from the faulty laptop am I able to use it in the bay currently used by the DVD drive if I get a suitable caddy? Is it simply a case of slotting it in and it working?

Plus I'm not sure how much memory the new T41 will come with - it may be 512 it may be 1024. Is swapping over RAM from the old to the new laptop a simple job as well?

Once again sorry for what are probably very basic questions.

[sktn77a]

Yes, on all counts. You can get the ultrabay slim HDD caddy for about $20 on ebay. You could also pull the mobo or just send the whole base to several online places which will reflow the GPU for $50 to $150 (that's the range of the different places - I'd probably send it to the $50 place). The 2nd memory chip replacement requires removing the keyboard but it's only 4 screws on the bottom of the computer.

[mpcook]

Just ignore this comment if this is obvious to you but you did mention being a noobie. Your drive will work fine from the ultrabay if you get the ultrabay slim adapter as mentioned. However, your software programs installed on the old drive will not work - they will need to be reinstalled from original CD's onto the new hard drive. Another option to consider, which is relatively simple, is to swap the drives. Your new T41 will boot from the old drive if you replace it into the hard drive bay. If the hardware configuration is any different (different wireless card or video), it should still boot, and then you can download new drivers for those components from Lenovo. Then you can place the new drive in the ultrabay slim adapter and use it for data backup/storage. In the event of a main hard drive failure, you have a backup bootable drive, just swap out the main drive, slide in the second drive and reboot, as both drives will be bootable. Of course in either case, you may need to download MS WINXP and Lenovo driver updates.

For RAM, check the slot first on the bottom of the base, if the slot is empty, just add a simm from the old T41. You may not need to remove the keyboard to upgrade, unless you have 2 256MB simms. Then you would want to change both out for 512's. Runs very nicely with 1GB of ram.

Good luck with the new machine!

Mike

[loftus]

First thanks very much for the swift replies. I didn't have a lot of stuff on the old hard drive as I used it mostly for internet, watching DVD's etc.
I am a noob and what you said Mike was new to me. Are you saying that the only way to actually use what is on the old hard drive is to have it as the main HDD in the new machine? Is it a relatively easy process to swap them over? I think the caddy would be useful to enable me to have the other HDD as backup storage but how do you access whatever is on there or get it there in the first place?
Again I apologise because these are probably really easy things for someone with a bit more knowledge than I have.

[mpcook]

OK yes you are a noobie! When you install your old drive in the slot for the CD drive with an ultrabay slim adapter, the T41 will recognize it and assign a drive letter. This will probably be Drive D: or E:. Any data files you have such as Word documents, music files, files you have downloaded from the internet, etc. will then be available by accessing that drive letter through software, or through My Computer or Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer). In fact, just open My Computer and you will see your C: drive (the main drive) and most likely a D: Drive (the extra drive). It will show you how big, and how much space is available for new files.

However, if you have installed Microsoft Office, or some other software programs on your old drive, they will not run with the old drive in the ultrabay slim slot. Your new T41 will come with Internet Explorer and most likely the other pre-installed Thinkpad software. This includes a program to play DVD's for example, but not a whole lot else.

So this leaves you with the two options:
1. If you have purchased and installed software on your old T41 (including MS Office), use that old drive as your main drive and move the new drive into the ultrabay slot as backup drive.
2. First though, go ahead and boot up the new T41 and see if it has pretty much what you need to web surf and play DVD's, then just use the old drive as a backup. You can put that drive in ultrabay slim adapter and copy your data files from My Documents on the old (now) D: drive over to your new My Documents folder on C: drive.

You will have a better idea once you get the new machine and see what it has on it and if it meets your needs "out of the box".

Mike

[Johan]

loftus,

First: Welcome to the Forum!

Next, please see this post where you will find a couple of links to persons in England who might be able to help you fix your presently dead T41... it does not cost anything to ask for a price? If you were/are otherwise happy with it, it might feel a shame just to judge it dead...?

As for swapping parts, I think you might benefit from getting yourself acquainted with the famous ThinkPad "Hardware Maintenance Manual" which you will also find a link to in the above-mentioned post. Also, the movies in the Hardware removal and installation - ThinkPad T40/p, T41/p, T42/p, T43/p site are very useful!

Johan

[loftus]

Mike that makes a lot of sense. Thank you again for your patience. One last question. I assume if I do as you suggest and swap the drives, if I have any problems with the old drive in future I could swap the new one in and be able to boot from that?

Johan, thanks for the welcome and for the links. I am going ahead and getting the new machine as it's a good price and also the display on my old machine has a line of dead pixels. It's an annoyance rather than anything else but pushes me to getting the new T41. Plus having a source of spares will be useful and there's always ebay

Thanks once again.

[mpcook]

Mike that makes a lot of sense. Thank you again for your patience. One last question. I assume if I do as you suggest and swap the drives, if I have any problems with the old drive in future I could swap the new one in and be able to boot from that?

That's right, in the end, either drive will be bootable; so later on you can swap the drive that comes with your new T41 back in, and it will boot fine into a "clean" Windows environment. If you keep copies of your "My Documents" files on both drives, you will be in good shape.

Mike

[loftus]

Great, thank you very much. I'll leave you in peace for now

[mpcook]

Great, thank you very much. I'll leave you in peace for now

I'm in Zurich right now, a quiet place on a Sunday afternoon. Time to go to dinner!

[loftus]

Mike, just to give you an update as you were so patient.

The new laptop arrived, I swapped the hard drives, added the additional memory and the DVD drive from the old laptop and all is working fine.
The new laptop came with a DVD/CD RW combo - UJDA765. I assume if I want to use it in the new laptop I will need to download new drivers? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Ta.

[mpcook]

Mike, just to give you an update as you were so patient.

The new laptop arrived, I swapped the hard drives, added the additional memory and the DVD drive from the old laptop and all is working fine.
The new laptop came with a DVD/CD RW combo - UJDA765. I assume if I want to use it in the new laptop I will need to download new drivers? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Ta.

Hello again, good news indeed! As to the DVD/CD drive, I do not believe you will need drivers. Just try it out -- pop a CD in and a DVD in and see what happens. You should be able to read the disks. In a pinch, download the latest MS Media Player...As to writing to CD, you will need software for that, which was probably not installed on the old drive. Check on the Lenovo website for downloads for your new machine based on it's model number; you may be able to download it form there. Otherwise there is inexpensive CD writing software available, maybe someone can recommend.

Mike

[loftus]

Mike you were correct again I should have tried before asking! I inserted the new drive, booted up and it works fine. Will have to hunt down some CD RW software but thats not crucial. Will also get a caddy for the other hard drive.
Thanks for all your help. Now have a laptop with fully working display again, no need to reinstall my software, an additional hard drive and DVD drive plus a few spares. Hopefully will keep me going. I will handle this one a bit more gently to avoid the flexing which I suspect did for my previous GPU.
Thanks again - you're a star!